Extraordinary footage taken by a cameraman of shocking violence in the Bangkok riots, moments before he was shot dead, has been released.The guy had a wife and kids:
RELATED: A CFR, "Reform, Not Revolution, for Thailand."
And some coverage at the Boston Globe, "Holocaust Lessons Stated Anew: Services Emphasize Preserving Memory." And from BBC, "Israel stops for Holocaust Memorial Day tribute."
I stand by this man. I stand by this man, because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things, things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo-ops in the world.
Then this is no surprise, "Colbert to Interview Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Tonight."
Josh Stieber was not on the mission over Baghdad that day. By then he had already begun questioning the actions he was being asked to carry out in Iraq; he had refused an order from his commanding officers a few days earlier -- "a command that I didn't feel right in following," as he told Glenn Greenwald on Friday -- and he was kept behind. Otherwise, he said, "I would have been in that video."RTWT at the link.
AlterNet's Liliana Segura spoke with Stieber over the phone on Sunday night about his reaction to the video, the response from the Pentagon, and why the Iraq Veterans Against the War member has devoted himself to speaking out.
RNPS PICTURES OF THE YEAR - One of the last pictures taken by Reuters Iraqi photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen before he was killed on July 12, 2007 shows two old women dressed in black walking towards a window pierced by a bullet in the al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighbourhood of Baghdad. U.S. soldiers took Noor-Eldeen's two digital cameras from the scene after he was killed. The military returned them to Reuters on Sunday.
The real threat to national security is not, as some military intelligence officials charge, WikiLeaks or even individual whistle-blowers. These actors risk their livelihoods to give the democratic public the truth it needs to arrive at sane policy, however unlikely. The real threats to American security are the wars themselves; may we never live to see our benevolence reciprocated.I somehow sense it's not "truth" the editors are after, but another chance to put down America's "evil, racist neo-imperial war-machine," blah, blah ...
As the behavior in this WikiLeak illustrates, America’s futile nation building project, responsible now for the lives of 100,000 civilians, will do little more than ignite outright hatred among the families bereaved by American arms.
Perhaps it is a case of both. Boston talk show host Michael Graham found a contest of Sarah Palin 'signs' to commemorate her appearance at a Boston Tea Party event on April 14.Then LCR points us to the Weekly Dig, with this "winning" submission at left. And the editors note:
Known only as "g80", the winner of our Palin protest sign contest delivers the perfect balance of humor, striking protest design and good old fashioned WTF appeal. Keep your ears open for details on Palin's Boston visit on 4/14."Perfect balance"?
Looking back east, you can see LACMA's older buildings:
Again, no photography permitted, but if you look at the screencap above you can see a glimpse of the exhibit, from the entry on the second floor. Notice the lightness in the white-painted walls, which is a bright contrast to the darker feeling at the "American Stories" exhibit. The curators obviously wanted a smashing show, the least of which to justify the huge ticket prices. I eschewed notetaking this time, mostly from fatigue, but also so as to reflect and wonder more at the paintings. An awesome learning experience, LACMA had short film clips of Auguste Renoir running in a theater alcove. Some of the works on display can be seen at this video:
Walking back outside now, down the stairs. Kind of postmod feel to the place, while retaining the steel-girders of the industrial age. Striking contrasts:
Videos such as these are extremely valuable for the public to see. We must understand what is being done in our name when the United States is at war. But we also must know that pictures may not tell the full story. WikiLeaks, which is more an advocacy group than a journalism site, titled the video "Collateral Murder." The military had investigated this case and absolved the soldiers of any wrongdoing; for three years, Reuters was denied a copy of the video. It does not answer all our questions, but it certainly raises enough of them to warrant further investigation. Now that we have a close-up look at the ugliness of battle, we have a right to know what it means. The key is not just what happens in the video, but what happened before, and what happens after.
The signature of modern leftist rhetoric is the deployment of terminology that simply cannot fail to command assent. As Orwell himself recognized, even slavery could be sold if labeled "freedom." In this vein, who could ever conscientiously oppose the pursuit of "social justice," -- i.e., a just society?RTWT.
To understand "social justice," we must contrast it with the earlier view of justice against which it was conceived -- one that arose as a revolt against political absolutism. With a government (e.g., a monarchy) that is granted absolute power, it is impossible to speak of any injustice on its part. If it can do anything, it can't do anything "wrong." Justice as a political/legal term can begin only when limitations are placed upon the sovereign, i.e., when men define what is unjust for government to do. The historical realization traces from the Roman senate to Magna Carta to the U.S. Constitution to the 19th century. It was now a matter of "justice" that government not arrest citizens arbitrarily, sanction their bondage by others, persecute them for their religion or speech, seize their property, or prevent their travel.
This culmination of centuries of ideas and struggles became known as liberalism. And it was precisely in opposition to this liberalism -- not feudalism or theocracy or the ancien régime, much less 20th century fascism -- that Karl Marx formed and detailed the popular concept of "social justice," (which has become a kind of "new and improved" substitute for a storeful of other terms -- Marxism, socialism, collectivism -- that, in the wake of Communism's history and collapse, are now unsellable).
"The history of all existing society," he and Engels declared, "is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf ... oppressor and oppressed, stood in sharp opposition to each other." They were quite right to note the political castes and resulting clashes of the pre-liberal era. The expositors of liberalism (Spencer, Maine) saw their ethic, by establishing the political equality of all (e.g., the abolition of slavery, serfdom, and inequality of rights), as moving mankind from a "society of status" to a "society of contract." Alas, Marx the Prophet could not accept that the classless millenium had arrived before he did. Thus, he revealed to a benighted humanity that liberalism was in fact merely another stage of History's class struggle -- "capitalism" -- with its own combatants: the "proletariat" and the "bourgeoisie." The former were manual laborers, the latter professionals and business owners. Marx's "classes" were not political castes but occupations.
Today the terms have broadened to mean essentially income brackets. If Smith can make a nice living from his writing, he's a bourgeois; if Jones is reciting poetry for coins in a subway terminal, he's a proletarian. But the freedoms of speech and enterprise that they share equally are "nothing but lies and falsehoods so long as" their differences in affluence and influence persist (Luxemburg). The unbroken line from The Communist Manifesto to its contemporary adherents is that economic inequality is the monstrous injustice of the capitalist system, which must be replaced by an ideal of "social justice" -- a "classless" society created by the elimination of all differences in wealth and "power."
A true warrior is willing to look his adversary in the eyes. What we see here is techno-chickens#!t terrorism, and makes us no better than "AQ" ...
I didn't read all that much of the thread. It's too long. But over and over again this last week, throughout my coverage, I've seen folks decry the "evil' Americans and the "heartless murderers." But when the totality of evidence is considered, we know, of course, that U.S. forces engaged AIF in firefights all morning; that ground contingents were nearby and in direct communication with the Apache gunship; that the AWT captain received the go ahead each time before opening fire; that the unmarked van had been transporting insurgents throughout the day; that the children were placed in harm's way as human shields; and that the Americans evaculated them immediately for medical treatment.
And leftists have been up in the air that U.S. forces "celebrated" their "kills." And damn straight right! An RPG will take down the birds, so vividly recounted in "Black Hawk Down":
But for an especially revealing leftist take on the debate, recall the post at Crooked Timber.
theAmericanist – speaking of growing up, I think it is time for a time-out. You’re banned from commenting on threads here for the next 72 hours (i.e. until 2pm ET Tuesday), and I expect you to be calmer and more considerate to your fellow commenters when you come back. Any efforts to post in the interim will be considered grounds for a permanent ban.I don't see an intervening comment, but here's Henry nevertheless, at 10:02pm PST:
TheAmericanist – we have pretty straightforward rules here – and pretty straightforward solutions for those who deliberately flout them. You are now permanently banned from Crooked Timber. Any further posts from you will be deleted on sight. Goodbye.Actually, the thread's not all that ugly. Scroll back up to comment #66 and The Americanist calls Henry's kids "assholes." Shoot, that's nothing. And Americanist's just mocking 'em at #97.
All across America are good, decent folks who meet their obligations each and every day. They work hard. They support their families. They try to make an honest living the best they can. And this weekend, many are sitting down to pay the taxes they owe – not because it’s fun, but because it’s a fundamental responsibility of our citizenship.After I post this, I'm heading over to the bank to deposit this 15 large (well 5 large, and $1000 in twenties). That's because my wife and I settled a credit card debt last year, and -- little did I know, my bad -- but the write down is taxable income according to the IRS. So, since my payroll withholding didn't cover it, we owe this year (and more than $1500, by the way).
President Barack Obama, April 10, 2010
President Barack Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit is a major piece of the fiscal stimulus plan currently being debated in Congress. The new credit is being touted as a tax cut, but in reality it is just more spending through the tax code. Moreover, since it is also "refundable," it would send money directly to low-income taxpayers who pay no income taxes.RTWT at the link.
This Making Work Pay credit does nothing to create jobs. A better approach would be growth-promoting tax cuts that increase taxpayers' incentives to work, save, invest, and take on risk. The best way to do that is to lower rates on individual income, capital gains, and corporate taxes and to eliminate the death tax.
Lefists are pumping this up as if it's the Feeding of the 5000. See Jack & Jill Politics and Washington Monthly (via Memeorandum).
UPDATE: A solicitation from the Heritage Foundation, "Tax Day Money Bomb" (via Sissy Willis on Twitter):
Most of every dollar you give to Washington will be spent on things that harm freedom and jeopardize our future and prosperity. But every dollar you give to the Tax Day Money Bomb will help call America back to her destiny—lower taxes, limited government, broader prosperity.
Right around the corner from the Roxie, just steps from the protest, I noticed this casual bit of anti-Semitic graffiti on the window of a check-cashing business — unnoticed by all the protesters and counter-protesters. Someone had written the word “Jewish” on a roll of money pointing to the word “tax,” which is apparently either a reference to the old “Jews are money-grubbing” stereotype; or is a reference to the “Jewish Tax or “Kosher Tax,” an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that has been voiced at earlier SF anti-Israel protests; or, more simply, is a way of identifying Jewish-owned businesses for the next Kristallnacht.You can get your fill of anti-Semitic hatred right downtown, in San Francisco's Mission Distict (map). I wonder if any of these folks have worked up a Horst Wessel version of "I Left My Heart ..."
The president of Poland was killed in a plane crash on Saturday in western Russia, setting off a new cycle of grievances between Russia and Poland on a day that was supposed to serve the cause of reconciliation between them. President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of his top security officials were among the 96 people killed in the crash. As the fuselage of the Soviet-made Tupelov airplane (operated by a Polish airliner) still smoldered in forest near the city of Smolensk, the grim irony of their deaths became clear to the stunned Polish nation: Their president had been on his way to Russia to commemorate the massacre of tens of thousands of Poles, who had been executed on the order of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1940 in those same forests in the region of Smolensk.And at CNN, "Polish President Killed in Plane Crash":
Blame for the crash has fallen on the pilot, who reportedly ignored warnings from air traffic control and tried to land on Saturday morning in dense fog, snagging the tail of his plane on a tree about a mile from the airport. "The pilot was advised to fly to Moscow or Minsk because of heavy fog, but he still decided to land. No one should have been landing in that fog," an air traffic control official told Reuters, indicating that recklessness may be behind the tragedy. Russian law enforcement officials said they had opened an investigation, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called to express his condolences to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who reportedly wept upon hearing of the catastrophe on Saturday.
And more here, "Must Watch: First Full Trailer for Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2!"
Actually, the media was informed in advance, "CODEPINK Activists to Protest Karl Rove Appearance, Demand Accountability, in Las Vegas."
